Events & Workshops

I will be selling my journals and facilitating workshops in the coming months at these venues!

Journal-Making & Writing Workshops

I will initially be offering in-person journal-making and writing workshops within Chaffee and Lake Counties.

If you would like to schedule a workshop for your group or organization, please contact me at maryann@journalingforjoy.net or 720-485-1431 to discuss more details.  

Journal-Making Workshop

Journal with Crush Pages and Coptic Stitch

Have you ever thought about creating your very own journal, a special place to record your thoughts, feelings, and experiences?

Join me for this 3-hour workshop where we will construct a journal with book board and colorful hand-marbled papers, and then bind the book with the Coptic stitch.  You will have your choice from a variety of earth friendly papers to use for the journal cover. 

Get in touch with your creative nature and take home a lovely keepsake journal for yourself or as a gift for a friend or loved one.  This workshop welcomes people 13 and older who would like to explore their own creativity and give their sewing skills a try. 

***For those under 13 years of age, we can modify the type of journal we make.  Instead of sewing the binding, we can cover notebooks or journals that are pre-bound.  

Cost: $40

Cost includes all materials.

Awakening to Beauty

A 2-Hour Writing Retreat

Our souls long for beauty!  What is it that we seek in beauty?  What is life without beauty and peace?

We live in stressful and uncertain times.  Negativity often dominates our thoughts, speech, and actions.  This negativity creates an unhealthiness in the soul and spirit, making it difficult, if not impossible, to recognize and appreciate the beauty that is all around and within us.  

By shifting our gaze to an appreciation and enjoyment of life, we can cultivate a thought climate that appreciates beauty.  When we learn to interject moments of beauty and serenity into our daily lives, a negative thought climate doesn’t have room to grow, regardless of external circumstances.    

This 2-hour retreat offers a brief introduction to the 6-week writing retreat.  Through writing prompts, we will take a journey to explore HOW WE LOOK at our world and ourselves. We will explore the personal meaning that beauty has for each of us, and how we can interject more moments of beauty into our daily lives.  

This writing retreat welcomes those 13 years of age and older.  No writing experience is necessary, just a willingness to slow down and awaken your senses, to be curious, and to have fun! 

Cost: $60 — or $45  (for early bird registration)

The cost includes one of my journals.

Awakening to Beauty

A 6-Week Writing Retreat

“The graced eye can glimpse beauty anywhere, for beauty does not wait for perfection but is already secretly present in everything.  When we beautify our gaze, the grace of hidden beauty becomes our joy and sanctuary.”      

~John O’Donohue

We live in stressful and uncertain times.  Negativity often dominates our thoughts, speech, and actions.  This negativity creates an unhealthiness in the soul and spirit, making it difficult, if not impossible, to recognize and appreciate the beauty that is all around and within us.   

By shifting our gaze to an appreciation and enjoyment of life, we can cultivate a thought climate that appreciates beauty.  When we learn to interject moments of beauty and serenity into our daily lives, a negative thought climate doesn’t have room to grow, regardless of external circumstances.    

 In this six-week retreat, we will take a journey to explore the often-overlooked beauty that is all around and within us.  We will contemplate HOW WE LOOK at our world and at ourselves as we seek to discover new ways of seeing and being in this world.

This writing retreat invites those 13 years of age and older who are interested in exploring how a slight shift in focus can alter what we see and how we can better appreciate ourselves, others, and our world.   No writing experience is necessary, just a willingness to slow down and awaken your senses! 

We will meet weekly for six weeks for two-hour sessions.  Reflective writing prompts invite us to contemplate beauty aspects of our inner and outer worlds, and the connection between the two.  Sharing our thoughts and writing is always optional, but encouraged. When we share the beauty of ordinary and extraordinary events with others, the focus on the “less than perfect” disappears.

Cost: $150 —  or $135 (for early bird registration)

The cost includes one of my journals.